/*
 *   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 *   the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 *   (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *   GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 *   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */

/*
 *    Associator.java
 *    Copyright (C) 1999-2012 University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
 *
 */

package weka.associations;

import weka.core.Capabilities;
import weka.core.Instances;

public interface Associator {

    /**
     * Generates an associator. Must initialize all fields of the associator that
     * are not being set via options (ie. multiple calls of buildAssociator must
     * always lead to the same result). Must not change the dataset in any way.
     *
     * @param data set of instances serving as training data
     * @exception Exception if the associator has not been generated successfully
     */
    void buildAssociations(Instances data) throws Exception;

    /**
     * Returns the Capabilities of this associator. Derived associators have to
     * override this method to enable capabilities.
     *
     * @return the capabilities of this object
     * @see Capabilities
     */
    Capabilities getCapabilities();
}